Radio Requests
by embracing-shadows
Summary: Maybe it was fate that led him to do it, but he wouldn’t ever really know for sure. All he knew was that his belief in God was sparked a little. What else could have made this happen?
1. Complicated

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot!

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Maybe it was fate that led him to do it, but he wouldn't ever really know for sure. All he knew was that his belief in God was sparked a little. What else could have made this happen? It had been a very long day and Greg just wanted to get home. He sat in his small car in the parking lot of the lab and turned the stereo on, letting the vehicle run for a moment to warm up. A blast of sound met his ears and he let his head fall back against the seat in exhaustion.

Without really looking he reached out a hand, groping blindly for the dashboard controls and turning off the CD. For once he wasn't in the mood for wordless noise. But he had never been one for the radio, so he didn't know which stations would be good. He found the 'seek' button and lazily flipped it down again and again, hoping for something pleasing to meet his ears. With each flick he stopped for about thirty seconds to listen to what was playing, but nothing caught his interest so he moved on.

"And who's this dedicated to Nick?" Greg had no idea what made him pause for this. Nick was an extremely common name; it couldn't possibly be the one that he knew. And maybe it really was fate, or God, or something like that, but something stayed his hand on the seek button and he waited a moment longer to hear what the caller in to the station would say. Apparently they had made a song request. A crackly chuckle met his ears and he briefly wondered why the radio stations always seemed to have bad connection.

"It's for Greg, because there's no way he's listening to this!" The voice was familiar, even through the crackle. Greg would know that voice under water with a sound distortion device screwing up the airwaves. He would know that voice in the dead of sleep, and it could bring him out of that sleep too. It was the voice of the Nick he knew, Nick Stokes, calling in to a radio station that Greg belatedly realized was a country request station, and dedicating it to him. Because he wouldn't hear it. But that didn't make sense. The DJ laughed out loud.

"There's one I've never heard," the man admitted jovially, "requesting something because you know they aren't listening. Well here goes folks, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Complicated, dedicated to Greg." The first few notes were sweet and slow and so country Greg would normally have groaned and rolled his eyes. But now he sat still, mesmerized by the tune. Why would Nick dedicate a song to him called Complicated? He burned to know what the words would say, and he didn't have long to wait.

_I'm so scared that the way I feel  
Is written all over my face  
When you walk into the room  
I wanna find a hiding place  
We used to laugh, we used to hug, the way that old friends do  
But now a smile and a touch of your hand  
Just makes me come unglued  
Such a contradiction, do I lie or tell the truth  
Is it fact or fiction  
Oh the way I feel for you_

It was a woman's voice coming through the speakers, and Greg didn't even realize that the sound was still turned up to ear splitting volumes. The words she was singing were filling the air around him until it became so thick he almost couldn't breathe. What could Nick be trying to tell him, or not tell him as the case may be? All he could do was close his eyes tighter and try to convince his lungs to take in air as he continued to listen.

_So complicated, I'm so frustrated  
I wanna hold you close, I wanna push you away  
I wanna make you go, I wanna make you stay  
Should I say it  
Should I tell you how I feel  
Oh, I want you to know__  
But then again I don't  
It's so complicated_

He couldn't help his eyes opening in shock, but he didn't see anything at all and he didn't even feel the wetness gathering in the corners as his thought process ground to a shuttering aching halt. He knew the feeling of wanting to run and hide every time he caught sight of a certain familiar face. He knew how it felt to be conflicted between the all consuming need to reach out and pull them closer together and the overpowering urge to push them as far apart as possible. He got it every time they stood next to each other. Each time they spoke he couldn't decide whether to ask Nick to come closer or stand farther away. Torture either way, because they would never touch. Or, so he thought.

_Oh just when I think I'm under control  
I think I got a grip __  
Another friend tells me that  
My name is always on your lips  
They say I'm more than just a friend, they say I must be blind  
Well, I admit that I've seen you watch me from the corner of your eye__  
Oh, It's so confusing  
Yeah I wish you'd just confess__  
But think of what I'd be losing  
If your answer wasn't yes_

Perhaps he should have cracked a window, because Greg was fairly sure he was about to suffocate. And maybe the car's heater wasn't on but it was suddenly too hot in here. He did watch Nick, but definitely not from the corner of his eye. He stared, and he wasn't going to deny it. He stared hard and long and longingly, looking after something he thought he would never get. And he knew that it made people suspicious, how he could always find a way to work Nick in to a conversation. But he didn't care because it just felt good to say the name. Nick. Nick Stokes. He couldn't help it if the man was always filling his thoughts. As much as the sound was filling his mind.

Greg felt that if he listened much longer he might explode from the feelings welling up in his chest. He didn't really understand them all, but he was sure they must be good. Or maybe they weren't because he suddenly became aware of tears falling down his cheeks and people only cried when they were sad, right? He'd never been happy enough to cry before. But maybe God really existed and maybe he was smiling down at Greg. And Greg closed his eyes again, soaking in the words pounding on his windows, bouncing around the small space, and ricocheting off his heart.

_So complicated, I'm so frustrated  
I wanna hold you close, I wanna push you away  
I wanna make you go, I wanna make you stay__  
Should I say it  
Should I tell you how I feel__  
Oh I want you to know  
But then again I don't  
It's so complicated_

It was complicated, she way saying. Nick was saying it was complicated. But Greg couldn't help but come to the realization that this was all very simple and they had been making it complicated for so long. They were stupid, of course, to not see how extremely **un**complicated this all really was. Through his tears and closed eyes and swollen heart, Greg smiled. He smiled and continued crying his happy tears, now that he knew what they were, and he let the song finish because he no longer felt like he might die. He might swell and burst and perhaps he might never be the same again. But really, maybe fate had planned that. Maybe he wasn't supposed to be the same because after the first time he saw Nick, Greg had never been the same anyway.

_Oh, I hate it  
Cause I've waited  
So long for someone like you  
Oh, what do I do  
Oh should I say it  
Should I tell you how I feel__  
I want you to know  
But then again I don't  
It's so complicated  
It's so complicated  
It's so complicated  
Oh_

And he wasn't meant to hear it. The most beautiful part was that fate had stayed his hand and he had heard what he wasn't meant to hear. The most perfect part was that now the power to set everything right was in his hands, and Greg didn't hesitate for a moment. He knew just what he wanted to do. Another song request was taken as Greg wiped his sleeve across his eyes and regained some sense of self. A new rhythm was blasting out of the stereo when he heard a knocking, looking over to see Catherine standing outside his window. He rolled it down and looked at her quizzically. She seemed greatly amused by something.

"Gee Greggo, I didn't know you liked country," she said, laughter in her voice. Greg looked up at her with a secret smile tugging at his lips. The song was still filling the space inside his car, still slowing his heart and lungs until he had to fight to breathe. It was a good fight, but he wasn't ready to let her in on it. Not just yet. Because Greg already had his plan in mind, but he would need the internet to help him with this. So he just blinked and smiled once more.

"You have no idea how much I love country."


	2. I Wanna Make You Cry

Everything was ready. All he had to do was wait, but waiting was never something that Greg Sanders was good at. All of the backlog in the DNA lab from the day shift had been completed and he had worked his way through today's work in record timing. Maybe it looked suspicious again but he could not have cared less. He was more anxious than he had ever been before; not nervous really, he knew what he had to do, but he wished the time would go faster. It seemed that, now that fate had hit him round the heart and opened his eyes, it was determined to punish him for being so slow. A cruel mistress, fate.

It didn't help that he had come in early, even if only by an hour. But that just meant that he had longer to wait for the shift to be over so he could set about fixing every stupid mistake he and Nick had ever made over the last few years. He had it all planned out; he just had to make sure he wouldn't screw it up. But if Greg Sanders had learned anything from being an Eagle Scout, it was to be prepared, and boy was he prepared. He was five hours sitting in front of the internet prepared. He was three more hours practicing until it was perfect prepared. That still didn't make waiting any easier.

And then finally, _finally_, everything was setting in motion. He watched from his glass lab, in the middle of all the rest of the lab, as Nick strolled in from a case and headed in to the break room with obvious relief. Greg's lab was like an island in the middle of a sea of glass rooms, he was visible to the entire staff while he worked, and that was going to work to his advantage for once in his life. He waited a few more moments, then took out his pager and sent a message to Judy.

Everyone looked up from what they were doing as Judy's voice came on over the PA system and announced that she thought they all might enjoy some music. In the next moment soft country music was playing through the speakers, and most people smiled, thinking her very considerate. Only a few people grumbled at the choice of genre, but Greg knew that those people would change their minds in a moment. As the song would down he was holding his cell phone to his ear. The last new notes were spoken over by a loud voiced DJ, announcing that he had another request.

"Alright, we have a request here from Greg, who's this for Greg?" the voice was loud and clear over the system, and Greg felt a great many pairs of eyes swivel around reflexively to him. It was only natural to think of him first when they heard that name. He was sure, however, that they didn't expect to see him holding his phone to his ear and smiling to himself. And hours of practice made sure his voice was steady and calm as he replied to the man running the request station.

"It's for Nick. Because I know he's listening right now." And Greg knew that somewhere just down the hall, Nick Stokes was having a minor heart attack, probably frozen to his seat and staring at the black speaker back on the wall. He was probably wondering if he had heard correctly, and Greg wondered how he would react to the song. The DJ paused at his words and gave a small chuckle.

"Déjà vu, I tell you. So here it is, Jeff Bates, I Wanna Make You Cry, for Nick." His voice was suddenly cut off by a sweet longing melody that spoke of love. Greg was leaning on his desk in perfect calm when he saw the break room door crash open and Nick stumbled in to the hall. As their eyes met, Greg opened his mouth and started singing, his lips forming the words with the surety of three hours practice.

_How long has it been  
How long have you held it in  
And how long will you wait  
Before you let somebody take your breath away again_

He could see Nick's disbelieving face, but there was nothing he could say to dispute the fact that Greg was staring straight in to his eyes and singing just for him. And Greg knew that no matter how much he might start to think that this was all a dream he would feel the soreness of his muscles and the weariness of a full day's work and he would know it was real. And Greg found it funny that without even meaning to his hands were rising to rest in front of him with his elbows on the table and they were resting against each other as if in prayer. Maybe God was talking to him again.

_I wanna be the one who turns you on  
Makes love till the lonely's gone  
Be the man you dreamed of all your life  
I swear I'll make it last until  
Tears of joy come pouring from your eyes  
I wanna make you cry_

He tried as best he could to throw everything he had in to his words as his voice rose with that of Jeff Bates, a man he had never heard of until last night. And maybe he didn't sound as good as the singer but maybe he actually sounded a bit better because Jeff Bates didn't have Nick Stokes to sing to. Nick was taking a slow step forward, and he didn't seem to notice he was moving, drawn towards the man sitting exposed in his glass island, finally showing the world everything he held in his heart.

_Tell me what to do  
And I'll do what you want me to  
Cause darling I believe  
That I have fallen hopelessly and helplessly for you_

He could only hope that Nick could see the truth of it in his eyes. He could only pray, or his hands seemed to be doing that for him already, that this was ok. Nick was taking another slow step forward and Greg tried to show him in a song that he really would. He really would do what Nick wanted him to, if only he would say the words. And if only he knew how long Greg had been waiting for those words, maybe this would be a lot less stupid. Because it made sense, Nick and Greg. And Greg needed Nick to see just how much sense it made.

_I wanna be the one who turns you on  
Makes love till the lonely's gone  
Be the man you dreamed of all your life  
I swear I'll make it last until  
Tears of joy come pouring from your eyes  
I wanna make you cry_

Nick was there in the doorway now, standing just across the desk from Greg, and it was funny how Greg didn't even care that every single person in the lab was watching them. He could feel their eyes, could see them in the corner of his eye as they stared at him in disbelief, shock, wonder, or what ever else. But they all faded to nothing and slipped from his mind. Nick was there and Greg was singing just for him, not anybody else. He was singing with so much heart that he was sure he must be drowning out the actual music. But that was really what he had hoped for anyway. Were the words filling up the space for Nick? Was it hard for him to breathe?

_I swear I'll make it last until  
Tears of joy come pouring from your eyes  
I wanna make you cry  
I wanna make you cry_

In the sudden silence afterwards, Greg realized that Judy had stopped wiring the radio in to the PA system. It was only his moment they had wanted to share, no one else's, so it wasn't needed anymore. His song was through and his message was sent and Greg was waiting for Nick's heart to swell and burst and maybe neither one of them would ever be the same again after this. Surely neither had ever really recovered from the other.

He waited for a long time. Nick was standing there and the tears the song had asked for were standing in his eyes. But apparently he was a stronger man than Greg had been because he wasn't letting them fall down his cheeks. Or perhaps that made Greg a stronger man, he didn't really know. All he knew was that Nick had taken one last slow step forward and he was wringing his hands together in such an adorable way that Greg longed to reach out and hold them in his own.

"You want to make me cry, huh?" Nick whispered at last. And Greg smiled because even though that wasn't what he had been expecting the man to say, he already knew what he needed to say back. It was true; he did want to make Nick cry. He wanted to show Nick what happy tears were, because now that he had found out for himself he wanted to find out again and again and he wanted Nick to be the only one to show him how. So he let his smile grow until it was so big his face almost couldn't contain its happiness.

"You made me cry first," he whispered back, and he loved watching the light of understanding spark in Nick's eyes. The smile that spread across his weathered face stole Greg's breath all over again. Surely God could not have created something so beautiful all by himself. Surely he had help from fate and the angels and all those other things that Greg had never believed in until something stayed his hand at a radio station he would never have listened to before.

He stood from his chair and moved around the desk, slowly, deliberately. Nick had to understand with his every movement that it was real and that they were both stupid for not seeing how simple this had been all along. If they had just stopped and taken a look at each other, at themselves, they could have had this years ago. Nick watched him come closer with hope in his eyes and Greg couldn't stop the nervous breathy chuckle that escaped from him. Then suddenly they were millimeters apart and they were sharing air, breathing in the same space, space filled with words and heat and too much time of longing.

The first touch of their lips was so light and gentle it could barely be described as a caress before they pulled away again, just far enough to look each other in the eye. What for they didn't know, but they needed to see each other one last time before they were never the same again. Before they came together to never come apart again. But it lasted less than a second, and they were suddenly pressed together with desperation, holding on to each other for support. Neither really cared if they ever breathed again because this was their air now. Food; water; air; nothing mattered so long as they could have this again and again.

Greg could feel hands holding tight to his arms, and his own hands were suddenly wound in soft brown hair. He couldn't recall telling them to do that but perhaps it was one last message from God. Never let him go, they were saying, hold tight and never let go again. Greg was listening to them too. He pulled Nick a little closer and moved his lips a little more urgently. Not rushed or hurried, but needing more, just to make up for lost time.

When eventually they did pull apart he was sure neither one of them knew how much time had really passed. I'm truth he felt as if the whole world had stopped spinning just so the universe could look at them and see just how perfect this moment was. When he looked up, it was to the sound of clapping. He and Nick blinked at each other and regretfully brought their attention back to reality, which they had temporarily forgotten, and looked around themselves to see their friends and coworkers lining the halls of the lab, clapping, whistling, stamping their feet. And smiling, definitely smiling.

They looked at each other again and once more the world slipped away. Greg had time to wonder if this was going to happen every time and decide he didn't care before their lips were touching again and Greg Sanders was praying for the first time in his entire life. A prayer of thanks, to God, or fate, or whoever else it was that stayed his hand.


End file.
